TRAILS -- On Sept. 18, at 3:38 a.m., professional ultrarunner Karl “Speedgoat” Meltzer, 48, emerged from the Appalachian Trail’s southern terminus at Springer Mountain, Ga., to set an Appalachian Trail supported thru-hike speed record of 45 days 22 hours and 38 minutes.

Meltzer started his supported run at 5 a.m. on Aug. 3 from Mt. Katahdin, Maine, and averaged 47 miles a day.  The time beats the record set in 2015 by Scott Jurek by 10 hours.

Meltzer, a Red Bull sponsored athlete, made previous speed record attempts on the Appalachian Trail in 2008 and 2014.

Red Bull reports:

The project, in planning for more than two years, was accomplished with a small core crew consisting of Meltzer’s father, Karl Sr., and crew chief Eric Belz.  Others joined the crew to support Meltzer for short periods throughout the hike, including Meltzer’s wife and fellow ultrarunners.   The crew traveled alongside Meltzer every day, providing him with food, water, medical attention and logistical support.  Meals were prepared and taken in a van, which also served as Meltzer and Belz’s sleeping quarters.

“For the crew, enduring 46 days of this was probably harder for them than it was for me," Meltzer said.

Meltzer’s time on the trail typically began around 5 a.m. and ended between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. with several big meals during the day consisting of steak, fried chicken, ice cream, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, hamburgers, steamed vegetables, pasta, Red Bull and beer (at dinner).  Meltzer averaged 60-70 minutes between the time he came off the trail and when he went to sleep; on a few occasions he slept on the trail itself rather than in his support van.

After completing nearly 46 consecutive days, Meltzer took approximately 4.2 million steps (92,300 avg. per day), burned 345,100 calories (7,500 avg. per day), ran for 678 hours (14.8 avg. per day) and used up 20 pairs of shoes.  Meltzer’s crew kept up with him using a satellite-linked SPOT tracker that reported his current location every two-to-three minutes.

Daily updates from Meltzer’s journey are published on www.redbull.com/atrun to give running enthusiasts and fans an intimate look into the daily struggles and successes Meltzer and his crew faced on the trail from preparation until the finish.  A camera crew traveled with Meltzer throughout his record-setting thru-hike, and a documentary film will be released in 2017.

The Appalachian Trail runs from Maine to Georgia stretching 2,190 miles through 14 states.  It is roughly the distance between Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., as the crow flies.  A thru-hiker will experience 464,500 feet of elevation change, or 16 climbs of Mt. Everest.  Thousands of people attempt an Appalachian Trail thru-hike every year, yet only one in four hikers finish the journey, and they typically take five to seven months to complete the entire trail, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. 

Meltzer is among the world’s most accomplished ultrarunners and holds the record for the most career wins in 100-mile races, including five Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Runs and six Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Runs.